The Cavalry Comes Precisely When they Mean to
by Sufferingzombie
Summary: After the Triwizard Tournament, Dumbledore decides that Harry is too powerful and refuses to train him. Hermione thinks that this is unacceptable, so she calls in the calvary: her old, American babysitters
1. Chapter 1

I own nothing except myself.

Chapter One: The Call

When Harry returned from the graveyard, Hermione knew that the shit was about to hit the fan. She was sorry that no one believed her best friend about the return of Voldemort and had decided when she began helping him for the Tri-wizard that she would find a way to help him no matter what. She had discovered, during the year of training for the tournament that she loved Harry more than she loved almost anyone else, her parents being the only people she loved more (and that was up for debate). As a result, Hermione's analytical mind had decided that she would do anything within her power to help Harry, but she also realized quite quickly after the tournament that she would have to do something about her parents. Her thoughts derailed themselves as she approached the doors to the hospital wing, the sound of voices drawing her attention and reminding her of a lesson from long ago.

_"Mia, information is the single most important thing in the world, as well as the most powerful thing in the world, use it wisely, collect it wisely and remember: no matter how smart you are you will always need someone you trust."_

Any guilt that the young girl may have felt for eavesdropping were alleviated and she listened silently as those she thought would be the greatest help in the coming war turned out to be little more than a chess master and his pawns.

BREAK

"Potter needs to be trained Albus! If He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is back, and I think the boy is right about that, then the boy needs to be trained!"

"He will not be trained until I deem it appropriate Alastor. Besides, it won't matter if he is trained for in the end he will have to die."

Hermione heard someone coughing sharply, Alastor, whoever that was, as she placed her hand over her mouth and bit down so that she would not scream in outrage.

"Wh-what? Albus, he is just a boy! His potential is unbelievable; what do you mean that he will have to _die_?"

"Harry is too powerful even with his downtrodden nature. I had hoped that the Dursleys would be able to make him more manageable, but his magic has counteracted much of what they had accomplished. I cannot allow someone who will eventually have the power to defeat even me to survive. I also cannot allow you to remember any of this. _Oblivate!_"

Hermione bit down harder and slunk into a nearby alcove when she realized that Dumbledore was heading her way. She struggled to keep quiet as the man she had revered stopped briefly near her hiding place, one eyebrow cocked with suspicion, before he continued down the hallway, his 'grandfatherly' mask well in place as he disappeared down the corridor. Hermione wasted no time in getting into the infirmary and sitting beside Harry's bed, her eyes filling with tears as she looked at her best friend. He was battered, his arm bandaged, his scar still an angry red where it had been bleeding. He had not told her anything yet, she had not even gotten to speak to him between his arrival with Cedric's body and his admittance to the infirmary, but she knew that she believed him when he had shouted that Voldemort had returned. Now she had to figure out how to help him win the war that they were about to be forced into. She began to talk, softly and absently to the unconscious boy in the bed beside her, her hand softly stroking his as she mused aloud.

"What can we do Harry? The Headmaster has decided that you are already too powerful and he doesn't plan to train you at all! He's a despicable old man, I can't believe that he would _oblivate_ a retired auror! I – I don't know what to do…"

Her voice faded as her panic rose, but a voice in the back of her mind, a voice that she hadn't heard in years, echoed softly, stilling her panic and giving her a new sense of purpose. She sat up, squeezed Harry's hand in hers and slowly got to her feet.

"We're going to do this ourselves. I will get us the help that we need and if we have to raze their hide holes to the ground, we will. Don't worry Harry, I've got an idea."

The teenage girl leaned down and softly kissed her best friend on the cheek, her own face growing hot as she did so, before she turned and walked out of the infirmary, never noticing the fact that the old man with a spinning, bright blue eye had heard every word and now had an interested expression across his face.

_ "Mia, you're moving to England with your parents, but we want you to know that no matter what, if you need our help for any reason at all you just need to call us. We will help you with whatever it is that you need help with because we're family and dammit, family comes first."_


	2. The Answer

Chapter Two: The Answer

In a moderately small town in Southern California, in the good old U.S. of A. there was a quiet, unassuming house off of a small alley-way.

"I swear to _God_ if you two don't use the damn axe instead of the stupid sledge I am going to _kill_ you all!"

Well, sort of quiet. Sometimes.

This was the home of Kenshiki and Haruko Yamamoto, two third-generation Americans of Japanese decent and their Viking friend Lugh, called Luke by anyone who knew him. Ironically he was named for the Celtic god of craftsmanship, the leader of the _Tuatha de Dannan_, rather than any Norse deity, but Luke didn't really mind it considering that the alternative was _Edwin_. This day, there were three additional people at the Yamamoto home: the twins Callisto and Eric de la Vega and their friend and occasional boarder Daniel Hamilton. The menfolk, Kenshiki, Luke, Eric and Daniel, were 'cutting' wood out in the front of the house, facing into the alley, with the sledge hammer that the Yamamoto's had on hand for demolition purposes. None of the men seemed to have realized that there was a wood-chopping axe less than ten feet away, leaning against the house. The four men looked toward the house to see Callisto through the front window, glaring at them with a truly evil look in her eyes. She narrowed her eyes for a moment before she turned and headed back into the kitchen where Haruko was buttering the wok for dinner. Callisto was putting chicken on skewers and bathing it in a sake-mirin-sugar mixture to make yakitori while watching the chicken marinating in teriyaki sauce for her delicious teriyaki chicken rice balls.

The women left the men to chop the wood for the bon fire that they were going to have that night…at least until a surprised shout followed by raucous laughter drew their attention back to the front of the house.

Apparently the wood had gotten back at the men by ricocheting off the ground and striking Eric in the face and it was all Callisto could do not to laugh at her twin's misfortune. Haruko had no such barrier to her laughter and the bell-like sound echoed slightly through the kitchen and living room. Eric just glared at his sister before following Haruko, who motioned him into the kitchen. Apparently the wood had done very little damage, it was the fact that when the wood struck his face he had bitten through his lip that was the cause of the blood.

*(*(*(*

Dinner that night was going very well, even though the phone call that they were all expecting had not come yet. The group of misfits normally got together only a few times a month, but they always got together at the Yamamoto's home to field a phone call from their young friend Hermione Granger, a young woman that the group had babysat as teens until the Drs. Granger had decided to move back to their native England to raise their daughter; ever since the girl had kept in touch with the group and had, in fact, told them when she received her letter to Hogwarts. The interesting thing was that the group had run with the information that she had given them and researched the magical world in America. The information that they had been able to gather told them a lot, but still left them mostly in the dark about the magical world in Britain. According to the sources that Callisto in particular had been able to gather the magical world in the US had pulled so far away from the one in Britain that they were practically unrecognizable from one another. Where the US magical world had integrated into the lives of their non-magical counterparts the British magical world had pulled away from their counterparts completely and had, in fact, even begun to violate the Magna Carta (which is something that had greatly upset the group. Even if they did not agree with having a Queen, they understood the necessity of a country having everyone follow the same laws). All of the information that they were able to get told them that they really did not want Mia involved with the world in Britain, but if her parents were unwilling to do anything about it then they were powerless.

Finally, at around ten pm the phone rang and Haruko put it on speakerphone.

"Mia? Is that you? Why did it take you so long to call us this time?"

What followed was a mish mash of words, all run together and none of them really understood what she had said.

"Would you care to repeat that baby girl?"

The five listened carefully as Mia repeated herself, her voice clogged with tears of fear and frustration. When she got to Harry's return from the third task Callsito grabbed one of the numerous notebooks she kept with her at all times and quickly began to jot down notes regarding what Mia was telling them. Callisto was a teacher, between jobs at that time due to her decision not to renew her contract with the Department of Defense, teaching English classes to Army soldiers. Before her stint as a civilian contractor she had taught English in both South Korea and in Japan and had even done a short time in China, where she had discovered the fact that having an Oriental Dragon as a friend was a very, very good thing. She wrote down everything that Mia told them, noting in the margins strategies to alleviate the various problems that she was describing. When Mia finished, Luke immediately began talking, his hand up as if Mia could see him, his voice calm.

"Okay Mia, we need you to calm down and take a deep breath. Now, the way I see it the first problem that you have to worry about is getting your parents out of Britain, since you don't trust any of the bastards in charge to protect them at all. What is it you want our help with exactly other than that?"

Luke quickly located the speakerphone button on the phone's base and pressed it, letting the whole room in on the girl's answer.

"I want any help that you can give us. No one is going to do anything here; as I've already told you the government is denying what happened at the end of the third task and the so called 'leader of the light' is offering my best friend up as a sacrifice because of some nebulous "Greater Good", whatever the hell that is supposed to be."

Callisto looked up at Luke, who looked at Eric, who looked to Haruko. Haruko shrugged at the unasked question and looked to her husband, who looked to Daniel. Finally, almost as one, the group nodded and once again turned their attentions to the phone.

"Baby girl, can you get a hold of one of your witchy friends who would be willing to help us get some…contraband across the pond? We'll have to fly, but we're going to need a way to get certain things over there."


End file.
